大象传媒

Reports from Russia suggest the authorities are shutting the borders to those fighting age men, who've been trying to leave the country and escape partial mobilisation of forces to fight in Ukraine.

A Russian serviceman has given his reasons as to why he's decided to desert.

For his safety, we're not revealing his name, location or role in the military and his words have been voiced by a 大象传媒 employee.

"It was a very difficult decision, I spent most of my life in the army, I tried to stand for my values to save my soldiers lives, treat them like people not like numbers but it didn't work...I was shocked that honest people who never broke the law now have to leave the country...'

"A country is like a mother, and politicians are like step fathers that beat your mother and send you to war, to kill your neighbour... I had a choice of doing what I've done, or going to war and destroying other people's houses, killing their children, their mothers, their sons."

"I understand my guilt and the guilt of my state, I will have to live with this for the rest of my life, I was part of this bloody meatgrinder."

(Photo: Reservists drafted during the partial mobilisation line up outside a recruitment office in the Siberian town of Tara in the Omsk region, Russia, 26 September, 2022. Credit: Alexey Malgavko/Reuters)

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